C MEDICAL GUILD becoming a reality
Dr. Carlos Everett practices in the city’s west side and his waiting room is adorned with Catholic art, including a large portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Jesus the physician, shown above. Alfredo E. Cardenas, South Texas Catholic
for Oct. 20, which will be preceded with a talk by a medical ethicist at CHRISTUS Spohn Health System. The organization of the medical guild will take a formal nature after that Mass. The group will also seek membership in the Catholic Medical Association, a national group dedicated to “uphold the principles of the Catholic faith in the science and practice of medicine.” The guild will be an outlet to help health care professionals that want to know more about their faith and how they can apply their faith in their practice in dealing with patients, Everett said. “Physicians are often asked to prescribe contraception pills, tie tubes and perform sterilizations, and they do it. Many of us never had any formation; we lack formation in Church teaching on biomedical ethics. We received no training on www.SouthTexasCatholic.com
ethics,” Everett said. “Basically, bioethics is acknowledging the dignity of human life,” Everett said. Everett hopes the guild can help educate fellow physicians on the whys of Church teaching in areas such as contraception, sterilization, abortion, in vitro fertilization, stem cells, etc. “We need, as health professionals, to speak up for what the Church teaches,” Everett said. Doctors suffer from government mandates, much as the Church is confronted today with the Health and Human Services mandate requiring insurance providers to include contraceptives in their plans, even if they are contrary to the employer’s moral stance. Everett said that some training programs in obstetrics and gynecology, for example, require medical students to learn to do abortions or be expelled from the program if they refuse on conscience. Everett lost the business of a chain pharmacy because he refused to provide the morning after pill. He was told he would have to refer patients to someone else, but he refused that request also because that would be “cooperating with evil.” In addition to bioethics concerns, the guild will also assist healthcare professionals with the pastoral aspects of their practice. “We have to realize that sometimes we allow the business aspect to take over, we always have to extend Christ’s love to patients and treat them with dignity. We need to love our patients as brothers, as family,” Everett said. As professionals, doctors tend to disassociate their feelings from the patient. “You want Christ in that examination room; He is the ultimate physician. We are only his instruments. God gives us the wisdom necessary to treat the patient better,” Everett said. Everett hopes that one day doctors can overcome all the negative influences from the secular society to the point that someday the community can have Catholic healthcare clinics where there will not be any birth control provided, no abortions, no sterilizations and “bringing the love of Christ to the patient.” “We cannot force our faith on others but at the same time we cannot ignore it,” Everett said. AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2012 | SOUTH TEX AS CATHOLIC
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